Build Salted Pork fj55 family wagon build

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That's amazing that you got home! A lot of mental gymnastics, it's not easy or fast to get from Swan Quarter to Cedar Island; good to have some inside intel. Yep, Pea Island got hosed about 1130 and they shut down NC12 not long after. It's wild, and the rest of the week doesn't look much better with continued swell and strong N winds. So glad you guys made it home.

You flooded from tide, rain, or both? Put the waders on and get the zupup zipping along.
yeah I had a friend that was the last one to make it through pea island at 12:03 following a dozer and they closed it at 12:05. she said it was nuts! Like a wave tried to spin them around. That poor 5th gen 4runner is toast.

I know it rained a bunch because the floor boards are wet from the windsheild gasket leaking on the fj55. I gotta fix that soon before we have more rust.

I think a lot of it here is just rain. The usual tide spots are flooded but its not the worst I have seen. North end is messed up! Where the truck is parked is a little bowl that always fills up... I think a tree was there at one point. I have it parked there because its a level spot compaired to the rest of the yard. I would get it running but It wont move because the driveshaft is still out and I am not sure I want to lay in 5 inches of water to put it back in right now haha. I might try and button up a few things this afternoon though. I still have things to tighten down and bolt up. its real great for the vehicle to be sitting there.... ugh. The life we live on islands.
 
yeah I had a friend that was the last one to make it through pea island at 12:03 following a dozer and they closed it at 12:05. she said it was nuts! Like a wave tried to spin them around. That poor 5th gen 4runner is toast.
I bet it was nuts, no way would I have done that. Here's a Ford pickup that is toast too-

wanna buy a ford.webp
 
Man the OBX really is on borrowed time!
Not good!
I don't thinlk that is 100% the case. I do think the hot spots are on borrowed time. But I dont think its anything new. They are barrier islands that are constantly moving. In the 1800s hatteras and Ocracoke were off and on connected. New inlets form all the time and close up. 20 years ago they did the little bridge just before pea island (I think thats where it was) because an inlet formed after a hurricane. Now its closed back up and dry sand.

There are spots on the outer banks that are super stable too. The village of Ocracoke is documented as one of those stable areas. Now I will say sea level rise is not helping.
 
Sidequest update: The isuzu truck - where I have the isuzu truck is parked in a level spot so I could get the engine back in. Unfortunately there is about 3-4 inches of standing water right now. I really need to install the drive shaft and bolt down the transmission at the mounts and bolt the down pipe onto the exhaust manifold... Once I do that I feel comfortable getting the whole thing running again. unfortunately I cant do that because I don't really want to be laying in water installing that stuff. I was itching to do somthing yesterday so I installed the carb throttle cable bracket, throttle cable, I bolted down more stuff and Looked at wiring. Tried to decipher some vacuum stuff But I might just cap some of that stuff off and keep the vacuum going to the brake booster and the distributor vacuum advance. I am a fan of simplicity. I dont have any of the smog stuff still. I lso found a rust hole in the roof that I will weld up too. Cant stand rust! I have been thinking about doing a respray on the truck too. I think that would make me happy haha.
 
Side quest update: I started a thread a while back and forgot about it - 1987 Isuzu Pup - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/1987-isuzu-pup.1349994/#post-16102213 This will have all the repairs and progress on the isuzu pup. Its a slower conquest but I chip at it everyso often. I want to make this little isuzu nice eventually. it didnt help that it sat since the end of june. I should be getting it going today after work if not by sunday.
 
Today with my automotive students (I get a new round of students every quarter witch is 9 weeks) we changed the oil in the land cruiser. I always forget that it holds a mess load of oil. Luckily when I was off the island I bought 2.5 gallons of oil at tractor supply. I think I got 15w40. I gotta look at the jug. This was the first oil change since I changed the oil right after I got the motor in the fj55. I felt since the engine sat SO long without running it be good to do a few low milage oil changes. The oil was not overly black which was good. Nothing weird came out of the pan - metal flakes or anything like that. Made me feel good about the engine. The engine is not burning oil in noticeable amounts as well. The oil was a hair thin I think because before I put the fuel pressure regulator on the weber It dumped some fuel down the carb before I caught it. It was not bad yet though. I no longer have that issue with the holley installed.

Speaking of the holley: I also installed the right angle fuel inlet with my students getting the fuel line out of the way of the head and exhaust manifold. And lastly I showed the students how to measure vacuum to tune a carburetor. None of them will Probably ever need to know this in todays world of fuel injection but they all thought it was cool. Ill get some photos of this. an update on tires - @theglobb could not make it down due to a lot of flooding on the outer banks so hopefully he will make it down in a couple of weeks with those tires. Also it will be cool to show him around down here. Last time he was here it was my wedding!
 
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Since you are a teacher and spell check won’t help you, it’s which. Witch is something entirely different. 😂
Yeah I am an art teacher. I need to slow down when I type because sometimes my brain is faster than what I can type. I'll be sure to correct my spelling. Which was never great. But thanks :meh:
 
Hey everyone I need some input/help on my isuzu pup. This page gets more traction than the little repair thread I have going on it. My isuzu pup has had more hurdles on repairing it than any other vehicle I have ever had. So my issue now is yes I can get it started and running but its running really really poorly. I dont want to run it much in fear something is going to break.

here are my symptoms 1. seems to have an intake valve or two that is pushing compresson out the carb. 2. it seems to have a tight spot when I crank the engine over. I think its cam shaft related because it seems to go away when I loosen the rocker assembly. 3. I did a compression test and the numbers were all over the place. I think the first time I did it it was 125psi, 75psi, 130, 160. I re adjusted the valves 2 times the first time I got 150, 160, 155, 170. but the second time got 100, 165, 170, 165 but I could not get Number 1 to come up. (this is where I gave up in frustration yesterday because with the valves adjusted on the first time I adjusted them it still ran like s***. I think the 4th thing I figured out was at tdc on the crank I had it TDC on #4. Because when adjusting the valves I hard a hard time because I kept doing it backwards till I figured this out. (meaning I was adjusting cilynder 1 first when I should have been adjusting #4 intake and exhaust.

I think the cam shaft does line up at tdc with the cam and crank (but TDC on #4) at least it does according to my haynes manual.

I think its a timing issue for sure. just not sure what could be the fix.

I think I want to fix symptom #4. Not sure how to do it though. what are your thoughts?? Rotate the cam assembly 180 degrees. or Undo the timing chain and rotate the engine assembly 180 and hook it back up? Just DONT DROP IT. do you all think this would cause my problems being 180 out?

I also want to check the rotor on the dizzy when I am at tdc on Number 4 and number one. (Note to my self)


Or do you all have any thoughts? Ill post some pictures this evening when I get done with work.


Other news the fj55 is running great with the Holley. Those who dont like holleys on land cruisers dont know what they are missing. I think I will get the baffle kit from Downy eventually just for better off road characteristics and piece of mind.
 
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1 Puking out the carb - an intake valve is not sealing - many reasons: chunk of carbon on valve seat or stem, loose valve seat, bent valve, bent rocker, sticking lifter
2 Exhaust stroke is in between compression and intake. Loosening rocker assembly assembly fixes tightness - bent valve, wrong valve lash could be same as 1
3 I have seen valve adjustment parts that are screwed up from somebody really wrenching on them - setting those can be very tricky
4 I doubt you are 180 out on the cam if it runs at all. Has it ever run good? or is this a new to you rig and some PO has worked it over.
I'm guessing you got problems in the head.
 
1 Puking out the carb - an intake valve is not sealing - many reasons: chunk of carbon on valve seat or stem, loose valve seat, bent valve, bent rocker, sticking lifter
2 Exhaust stroke is in between compression and intake. Loosening rocker assembly assembly fixes tightness - bent valve, wrong valve lash could be same as 1
3 I have seen valve adjustment parts that are screwed up from somebody really wrenching on them - setting those can be very tricky
4 I doubt you are 180 out on the cam if it runs at all. Has it ever run good? or is this a new to you rig and some PO has worked it over.
I'm guessing you got problems in the head.
Ran great before all this. I had the head gasket go. and had the head skimmed flat. but thats pretty much it. I know its not a lifter as the rockers ride on the cam. Yeah maybe number 1. I was also thinking it could be off a tooth on the timing possibly.
 
here is a video of the poor running. of course youtube does not really tell you much. the combustion coming through the carb popped the air cleaner tang things off. also I did run it with the valve cover off to see if I could see something obvious. it did sling oil everywhere. you can see that in the video too.
 
I went down the rabbit hole of reading all of this.... man makes you appriciate the simplicity of the 2f motors and timing gears. https://www.isuzupup.com/viewtopic.php?t=16133


One tooth will make it run poor.
I am going to check this when I get off work. Its what makes most sense to me as to the issues. it just does not look like it is off. but maybe 1 tooth would not look that out of tolerance on the alignment marks on the cam and crank. :meh:
 
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I think this afternoon I am going to check all of this that was said in the Isuzu forum I posted above by a person called oldestisuzuist. https://www.isuzupup.com/viewtopic.php?t=16133. Some of the things I did not know where the timing chain and timing sprocket marks. I thought they were degrees before tdc or somthing. I did know the TDC on the cam shaft marks he talks about.The only thing I dont think he is right on is the valve interference. Every thing I have read about the G200 isuzu 1.9l engine says its a Non interference motor. My haynes manual Sucks I am learning haha. But I am posting this as a bookmark to myself. I hope it helps.

Here is the quote below:

"This is what I would do given the info that I have- and please take pictures of every step in case we need to tweak it:
- do what you have to do to allow the crank to be rotated without the pistons hitting the valves. If you loosen the rocker shafts make sure the shaft marks are straight up when you reinstall & you hold the shaft springs while you tighten the nuts in the proper sequence.
- hold snug up pressure on the chain while you rotate the crank until the notch on the crank pulley aligns with the zero degrees TDC timing mark on the front cover. The chain can be on the cam gear at this time but the gear should not be attached to the cam. The distributor rotor should be pointing to #4 post, if it's pointing to #1 rotate the crank another full revolution. The pressure on the chain is to keep the chain engaged with the crank pulley teeth in the proper place. The crank should now be at #4 TDC.
- there is a scribe line on the cam collar a short distance behind the cam gear mounting flange, turn the cam as neccessary until this line aligns with a similar line on the front rocker shaft bracket. When both these marks align the cam gear dowel should also be pointing straight up. This should put the cam at #4TDC. Re-tighten the rockers if they were loosened.
- look at the chain & cam gear, there are two marks on the gear. The triangular mark aligns with the chain mark. This chain mark can actually be a mark on a chain link or most probably the link side plates are a different color and/or shape than the rest- think a master link in a bicycle chain. When the cam gear in installed this chain mark is a couple of links to the passenger side of straight up. Put the chain onto the cam gear keeping the driver's side of the chain tight, align the cam gear & chain marks. The gear dowel hole should be straight up & hopefully the cam gear & chain will slide onto the cam without moving anything. Snug the gear to the cam.
- right now you should have the crank pulley at zero degrees, the rotor at #4, the cam mark and the cam dowel straight up and the cam gear mark pointing to the chain mark. If all this is present you now need to test it: if you're not sure about the chain mark identify the link the cam mark is pointing to. Engage the chain tensioner. Now rotate the engine exactly two full revolutions until the timing mark is again at zero degrees & the rotor pointing to #4. The cam mark & dowel should also return to straight up and the cam gear mark should point to the same chain mark. Everything re-aligns, the chain is installed correctly. If not- maybe needs some tweaking.
Anyone who wants please comment on my proposed method, maybe I'm wrong & it won't work at all."

The other person he was talking to said he fixed it with the info.
 
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Looking at your video and your description, I would guess a bent valve, or timing related. Whenever I replace a cam or timing set in any engine I always rotate the crank 2 full revolutions(2 revolutions=4 strokes) to insure the valvetrain doesn't interfere with the pistons. Once you recheck everything and make sure the the cam is in time with the crank, rotate the crank 2 revolutions. If that's OK, then do a compression test. If there's a weak cylinder do a quick cylinder leak down on the cylinder. You don't need a fancy leak tester. My compression gauge is 2 piece, a hose with the threaded end and a fitting and the gauge which can be separated from the hose. Remove the shrader/valvecore on the threaded end of the hose, so air moves freely in and out. The fitting end of the hose can attach to an air hose fitting. Put the cylinder on TDC on the compression stroke and apply compressed air. Listen for an air leak thru the carb, the oil fill, and exhaust. This will help ID where the problem is.
 
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